Bharti Airtel profit jumps 10% in Q2 to Rs 1,523 crore

Country s top telecom operator Bharti Airtel today reported a 10.1 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,523 crore for the quarter ended September 30, on the back of growth in data traffic.

The company had reported a net profit of Rs 1,383 crore for the corresponding period last financial year, Airtel said in a statement.

Reacting to the earnings numbers, the shares of the company were trading at Rs 357.25, down 0.42 per cent on BSE.

Total revenue of the company rose 4.3 per cent to Rs 23,836 crore for the reported period compared with Rs 22,845 crore last year.

“Airtel’s revenue growth in India has accelerated to 13.3 per cent in Q2 on an underlying basis, the highest in the last 12 quarters. With the commercial launch of 4G services across 334 towns and roll-out of 3G services in our gap circles, we are now best positioned in the industry to leverage the fast growing data market,” Bharti Airtel MD and CEO (India and South Asia) Gopal Vittal said.

Mobile data revenue contributed 21.5 per cent of mobile India revenues while it stood at 14.5 per cent in the corresponding period last year. Data average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by Rs 42 to Rs 193 (year-on-year) in the reported quarter, led by 35.9 per cent increase in data usage per customer.

The company said Africa performance has improved with underlying revenue growth of 5.1 per cent in second quarter, which is highest in the last four quarters.

“Strong demand is being witnessed both in voice and data with our consumption increasing by 19.5 per cent and 104.5 per cent respectively. In the first half of the year, we have divested tower assets of USD 1.7 billion,” Airtel Africa MD and CEO Christian de Faria said.

The net debt of the company at the end of September 30 stood at Rs 70,777 crore.

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